Between 1742 and 1789 Britain faced a number of serious challenges. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached Derby in 1745, America rebelled thirty years later. Domestically there was contention over the position of George III and controversy over the role of extra-parliamentary pressure, exemplified in the person of John Wilkes.

This volume contains essays on high politics, popular pBetween 1742 and 1789 Britain faced a number of serious challenges. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached Derby in 1745, America rebelled thirty years later. Domestically there was contention over the position of George III and controversy over the role of extra-parliamentary pressure, exemplified in the person of John Wilkes.

This volume contains essays on high politics, popular politics, social developments, the economic situation, foreign policy, religion, imperial questions and Scotland and Ireland. The inclusion of a chapter on popular politics and the broadbased nature of that on society ensures that an elitist view is avoided, though due weight is given to the world of Westminster and Whitehall. Also significant is the attention paid to Scotland and Ireland which avoids a simple Anglocentric perspective.

Central to many of these essays is the extent to which Britain should be seen in terms of change or continuity. The popular image of the period is one of both: the economic transformation suggested by the term industrial revolution and the sense of timeless order, confidence and ease created by the stately homes of the age....more

Community Reviews

This is one of those collections of essays designed for the student market. Each one waiting to be pulled apart for facts and opinions to be recycled into course work. It is part of a series some of which coalesce tightly round a theme, this particular volume is a bit loose and baggy with no thematic unity, relying instead on a pair of dates to keep everything in place.

Running through the essays in turn the one by Porter deals entirely with his disagreement with J.C.D. Clark's book English SocieThis is one of those collections of essays designed for the student market. Each one waiting to be pulled apart for facts and opinions to be recycled into course work. It is part of a series some of which coalesce tightly round a theme, this particular volume is a bit loose and baggy with no thematic unity, relying instead on a pair of dates to keep everything in place.

Running through the essays in turn the one by Porter deals entirely with his disagreement with J.C.D. Clark's book English Society 16601832 Religion Ideology and Politics During the Ancien Regime. I got the feeling that Porter was going too far in his disagreement with Clark. It was like reading part of an argument that has gone on too long, the positions deeply entrenched and views loudly asserted simply for the sake of saying the opposite to the other person. Clearly consent to, and dissent from majority culture are both sides of the same coin and to over emphasise one is as unwise as to over emphasise the other.

Hausman's essay deals with the economy. This is the period when various industrial innovations are beginning to occur but before the 'take-off' of the industrial revolution. At this time UK debt was at 240% of GDP and half of Government revenues went on debt servicing, which puts the country's current situation in some perspective. The significant point was that even then the UK was relatively more effective at raising and collecting revenue (mostly through customs and excises) than other European countries and so benefited from low interest rates. Interesting (but not really surprising considering) to see that military expenditure was one the biggest growth areas in the economy in the second half of the eighteenth century. Hausman takes the view that had there not been taxes to spend on the military and warfare that investment would have been available for further economic growth. On the other hand buying uniforms, weapons, building warships also stimulates the economy (and very traditional parts of it at that wool- weaving, dyeing, timber related businesses). I suppose the extent of serviceable debt also supported the development of the finance sector too.

Lenman's essay on Scotland and Ireland was very nice but looks mostly at 1745 and before. Interesting to see a period when Ireland was peaceful and regarded as such, while Scotland was seen as the land of rebels and in need of special management. Considering the extent of Jacobitism in Scotland it is striking how successful Scots were in Hanoverian-British service.

Christie on parliamentary politics, interesting to see the Rockingham Whigs' belief in a secret cabal running the government - this belief seems to have spilled over into the thirteen colonies.

Dickinson, Radicals and reformers. Mobilisation of popular support a model for later movements of the kind described in The Making of the English Working Class with clubs, celebratory and symbolic dinners as so on.

Black has a discussion of the influences which may or may not have fed into foreign policy decision making, which is classically inconclusive but sets out the arguments very neatly.

Marshall's essay on the British Empire felt particularly slight, but then the concept of a British empire was one that was more full developed at a later date and has been read back into this period. The territories in India, for instance, at this time where still governed by the East India Company, while there was also uncertainty among contemporaries as to if Ireland should be regarded as part of the Empire or as part of the Imperial power.

Hempton's essay on religion in British Society was interesting. I would have liked to have seen more about the possibly of links between currents in protestantism in other European countries and the UK. The difficulties of the rather inflexible parish system of the Anglican Church, with low incomes in some areas leading to pluralism, with over large parishes in other areas, did not reflect population changes. This was also a something of a slack period for Methodism which was only to take off in South Wales and parts of the north-west in future decades. At the same time immigration meant that the number of Catholics was increasing.

On the whole Linda Colley's book Britons Forging the Nation probably gives a more approachable overview of Britain at this time although admittedly with less Warren Hastings and extra Catholicism....more

Professor Jeremy Black MBE (born 30 October 1955) is a British historian and a Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the author of over 100 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described asProfessor Jeremy Black MBE (born 30 October 1955) is a British historian and a Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the author of over 100 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age".

Black graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge with a starred first, and then undertook postgraduate work at St John's and Merton Colleges, Oxford. He taught at Durham University for 16 years from 1980 to 1996, firstly as a lecturer and then as a Professor. In 1996 he moved to Exeter University where he took up the post of Professor of History. He has lectured extensively in Australasia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the U.S..

He was editor of Archives, the journal of the British Records Association, from 1989 to 2005. He has served on the Council of the British Records Association (1989–2005); the Council of the Royal Historical Society (1993–1996 and 1997–2000); and the Council of the List and Index Society (from 1997). He has sat on the editorial boards of History Today, International History Review, Journal of Military History, Media History and the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute (now the RUSI Journal). He is an advisory fellow of the Barsanti Military History Center at the University of North Texas.

He was awarded an MBE in 2000 for services to stamp design, as advisor to the Royal Mail from 1997....more